Why choose Linux over Windows?

Posted by Daniel Stout on Sat 11 Feb 2006 at 10:23 PM

Often when I’m walking down the street, people come up to me and say, “Dan, I’ve been afraid to try Linux. Robert Scoble has me whipped. I’ve been using Windows for so long, I don’t know anything else.” It is such an easy thing. To this person, I give my best Buddha smile and say, “Kind sir, the reasons to switch are compelling. If you are a dutiful neophyte, we shall instruct you in the ways that you can liberate yourself and join the Linux world.”

Windows comes from the dominant culture. It is produced by a monopolistic multinational corporation. If you don’t know how to—or don’t want to—think for yourself, then follow this path. Down that road lies much distance from love and happiness, these essential things of life. But if you choose enlightenment, then the road is varied and interesting. There are many different paths to choose from. Like Robert Frost said, it is the road less traveled.

Linux offers security, variety, and peace. It is a wonderful platform. To switch today to Linux is much easier than you might expect. In fact, it just takes a thought: “I want something different.” To someone such as yourself, I would recommend the dual-boot system. Install Linux on, say, half your hard drive, and Windows can install on the other half. When you boot up, the beloved GRUB bootloader will ask “Linux or Windows?” and you can boot into either.

This is a good way to go for the Linux neophyte. But keep in mind the goal: to use Linux more and more everyday. Sure, if you want to waste some time with Half-Life 2, then feel free to boot into Windows. But you’ll find that Linux offers as much, in fact, much, much more than Windows.

One of the key differences between Linux is Windows is what comes with your base system. If you install Windows on your computer, you’re left with a system that can’t do much. Sure there’s Notepad, but not much else. We’ll quickly admit that once you’ve used any of the myriad of text editors available on Linux, you’ll see what a cludge Notepad is. In fact, right now, I’m writing these words in Kate, one of the text editors available in the K Desktop Environment (KDE).

Kate is a simple example of all the great tools available on Linux. It is an “advanced text editor”—not a word processor. In fact, I edit my websites in Kate. It offers code highlighting, line numbering, and all the essential features of a text editor. I like using it better than Dreamweaver. It’s a lot fast and more responsive. There’s not a long wait for it to load like Dreamweaver. For my purposes it works far better than that expensive commercial software.

With Linux, the system comes loaded with hundreds of great tools for all sorts of different purposes. If you want office applications, OpenOffice comes installed. If you want IDEs to code C++ or Java, you can install those too. What would cost literally thousands of dollars to obtain with Windows, comes installed for free with Linux. Even to get just a basic text editor like Kate on Windows will set you back $30, $60, or more.

The point being that Linux is supported by a community of users and developers. That means there’s a lot of support online if you have questions. Linux has always been about helping each other out. For example, in the early days before there were published books on Linux, the Linux Documentation Project wrote extensive, well written documentation about how to run and install Linux. The LDP is still going, but now you can also go to your local bookstore and find a whole range of books about Linux.

You might even use some of the same programs on Linux as Windows. Do you use Firefox as your Windows internet browser? Well, that same Firefox also exists in a Linux version. The same people who make Firefox also make Thunderbird for email, again on Linux and Windows. But one really cool thing about Linux is that there’s no one like Bill Gates sitting on high in his ivory tower dictating how and why you should do things. With Linux you have a choice. If you want to run Firefox, you can. If you want to run a different browser, that’s fine too.

With Linux there’s nothing you have to do. With Windows, the Man is in charge of your system. With Linux, you are in charge. Even the whole look and feel of the system can be changed. Do you want a full-featured, powerful windowing system? Then run KDE. Want something simpler? Then run Gnome. Want something even simpler? There are options there too.

Don’t get me wrong: If you don’t want to change anything, you don’t have to. If you choose a default installation with Linux, it will give you a whole host of tools that most people like to use. But one of the freedoms of Linux is choice. If you don’t like one tool, you can use another. There is no orthodoxy saying you can only use Adobe applications or Microsoft applications. There are no monopolies on software when it comes to Linux.

The Linux community is a cool reason to get involved. You’ll find that the people involved in Linux are a lot more interesting and dynamic then you’ll find over in the Windows crowd. The Windows folk tend to be “entrenched.” They don’t like change. They don’t like new ideas. They have trouble dealing with choice, variety, and innovation. They tend to bury their heads in the sand whenever something new comes around. They like Microsoft’s monopoly because then they don’t have to think and thinking makes them uncomfortable.

Linux is liberation. Linux is freedom. The switch to Linux is easier than you ever imagined. Search. Learn. Investigate.

Here are two places to begin: openSUSE and Ubuntu.

If you’re looking for a commercial Linux distribution that includes phone support for installation, check out the excellent SUSE Linux available from Amazon.com here.

Tags: grub · half-life2 · linux · microsoft · novell · opensuse · suse · suse linux · ubuntu · windows · winxp

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